About Currency Currents

With Currency Currents, you can stay tuned-in to our current global-macro view and our analysis of key investment themes driving currency prices.

We consistently focus on the key asset classes responsible for the flow of global capital -- including equities, fixed income, commodities and, of course, currencies.

Nothing is off limits to us in this free-wheeling look at the markets. Some days you’ll receive ramblings on trading psychology, while other days we may take an academic approach in explaining esoteric economic issues. Ultimately we have one goal in mind: to help you get a handle on the key investment themes driving global capital flow. Because if you know where the money is going, it increases the probability that your position in the market will be a profitable one.

Who is Jack the Pipper?

Jack is founder and president of Black Swan Capital LLC. He has also
operated a discretionary money management firm specializing in global
stock, bond, and currency asset management for retail clients. In
addition, he was general partner in a firm specializing in currency
futures and commodities trading. Neither firm is now in operation.

Prior to entering the investment arena, Jack worked in various
corporate finance positions. He has written extensively on the subject
of global currencies and international economics.

More happy juice for the financial economy – a dangerous game!

“Another thing you Brits forgot. Delors, Trichet, the generation of 1968 are now in positions of power. The ludicrous Baroness Ashton–still cramming to understand what the word bonjour means–was a CND [Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament] treasurer; Javier Solana, an ex-Socialist Workers’ Party member; Manuel Barroso, an ex-Maoist; Joschka Fischer, an ex-riot leader, and so on. In other words, the scum who failed to win power over us through force of arms are now leading us by the nose through stealth and the EU Trojan Horse. Somebody wake up David Cameron.”
Taki, The Spectator

WSJ – The Fed, ECB and other central banks took coordinated action to shore up the global financial system as Europe’s rolling debt crisis continues to trouble markets.

Risk assets love this news this morning. The euro is jumping and stocks are rocking and rolling…good for financial market players, but we’ve seen this before–credit thrown on top of credit to solve a problem that was caused by too much credit in the first place. It seems a dangerous game that lacks any form or imagination. But maybe this time is different.

I received an email the other day from a reader who concluded because I am experiencing a particularly enjoyable outbreak of schadenfreude (my word, not his), thanks to the demise of the Eurozone single currency experiment, I “must be a nasty drunk.” Actually, having quite a vast sample size to work with, I must disappoint said reader again; I am actually a pretty happy drunk overall. And on reading Taki’s comments appearing in his November 12th Spectator column, I tipped my glass to him for summing up one of the key reasons I am dead set against the euro succeeding. The Eurozone seems bad for people who have a preference for liberty over security.

A man named Ben Franklin once uttered this bit of heresy:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

We continue to be told by the same people who love centralized power, and so-called financial analysts who have deep vested money interest in this ugly Frankenstein-like experiment succeeding, the euro must succeed or hell on earth will somehow be unleashed. I beg to differ and believe a breakup of the European single currency will be the best singled thing that could happen to Europe, and it would end this massive push for power over money and minds to be concentrated in Brussels and Berlin. It would slap the smarmy smiles off the faces of the Davos-elite already too smart by half. It would free the European nations to pursue their economic interests in their own right–as it should be. It will allow the so-called periphery nations a chance to compete against the German-juggernaut instead of simply being a captive market for German industrialists.

What is most interesting, watching the politicos in Europe attempting to circle the wagons again, is how blatant they have become in their zeal to steal sovereignty–a sign of fear I surmise. It reminds me of the reaction of a roach caught red-handed feasting on left-over delights (please don’t tell my wife I said that) when I flip on the lights late a night in the kitchen–it scurries for cover.

Now, the Franco-German battering ram makes no bones about strong-arming political leaders in “sovereign” countries out of power; replacing them with their apparatchiks beholding to Brussels. Are the European people so cowered by the threats of Armageddon that they will accept this new normal? Do they actually believe it when a person with a track record like George Soros tells them it is the best path? Are American taxpayers pleased to see their contribution to the IMF used to centralize power for the disgusting socialist “scum” who are now in control throughout Europe?

Maybe in a world where we once lived, a world where credit was virtually free and global demand was vibrant and the birds sang every day, the average serf would accept “a little more consolidation of power” in the hands of a select few in Europe. But now credit is scant, demand is bleak, and birds are shot for food.

European politicos are playing a dangerous game. Their attempts at a final solution could lead to many unintended and ugly consequences. The choice seems clear: continue to prop up a structurally flawed system by throwing more good money after bad by simply concentrating power and stifling dissent (this could go on longer than we think given the powerful vested interests), or let Mr. Market do some overdue cleansing resulting in short-term pain but paving the path to long-term “progress” and strike a blow for liberty.

Based on today’s coordinated central bank action–the most powerful of political tools in the hands of centralizers–the path chosen is pretty clear. Party on dudes!